Sramana 2001 04

SR No.: 525044
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shivprasad
Publisher: Parshvanath Vidhyashram Varanasi
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 226
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Sramana, & India
File Size: 9 MB

Page 177

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reached the authors nor the publishers. Also, whatever has reached them, it is either indirect or traditional which have led them to present it the way they have done it. Of course, this indicates the lop-sided studies of these scholars. I do not know whether any attempt has been made to remove these types of conceptions. How, otherwise, the same would have been expressed even in the books of 1999. I also felt from all this that the western world remains immune to these yearly lectures and expositions by about two dozen saints and scholarly people. The appreciation of a system by others has a better promotional effect rather than self-praise. Many books like "Seven Systems in Indian Philosophy" (Trigunayat) and "The World Religions' Reader" (Rutludge) do not contain even any description about Jainism. Of course, Sikhism and its literature finds place everywhere. Many authors still state Jainism and Buddhism as reformatory forms of Hinduism and they describe them in a single chapter. Even many Indian scholars in religious studies departments there do not agree to Jainism as an independent religion. The resident Indian Jainas also do not seem to attempt to remove these incorrect concepts in their books. This is the case even with the books, "Jainism in North America" (1996) and "Conquerors of the World" (1998). A similar situation was pointed out by S.K. Jain in U.K. and Europe while he was a visiting fellow there in 1992. Dr. Johrapurkar and Jain also felt the same way much earlier with some suggestions. As a result, there is need for purposeful exposition of Jainism on global basis. Accordingly, we require to collect books - text books, general books and reference books published during, say, half the century in different important languages and serialise the lopsided or incorrect views in them and try to prepare a multi-faceted book refuting them logically and send it to the authors and publishers so that they may modify there views in the next edition of their books. I shall describe here only some points for proper refutations.
Concepts about Jainism in Many Books of World Religions in the West
The various concepts described in these books may be classified under many categories.